When Snape woke up the next morning he was determined to find the room Harry had described. Also, he wanted Remus and Dumbledore to get time to read the diary. He had marked several important entries, so they wouldn’t need to search for all the information.

So after a quick breakfast, he took the diary and woke Remus up. Remus wasn’t looking too good. He hadn’t slept all that well. Snape hoped Hedwig would come back with good news.

Soon Remus and Snape left to Hogwarts by Floo. They arrived in Dumbledore’s office. Dumbledore seemed surprised to see them, but waited patiently to hear what had brought them to him.

Remus looked expectantly to Snape. He fumbled with the diary for a bit, before he trusted it in Dumbledore’s hands.

“I believe you both should read what Harry wrote in there. If we find him, we should take him out of the care of those muggles he lives with. The reasons can be found in there.” He said.

“I’m going to look for something important.” And with that, he turned around and walked out of the office, leaving two worried people behind.

Snape quickly walked towards the 3rd floor corridor where Fluffy had been guarding the entrance to the room where the Philosopher’s Stone was hidden. Of course Fluffy was gone for some time now (something for which Snape was quite grateful) and so the corridor was supposed to be empty.

Snape first checked the door that had kept Fluffy hidden. There was nothing there. He then systematically checked all other doors. A few were locked, but could be opened with a simple “Alohamora” spell. And those rooms only contained old supplies for several classes. There was one door he couldn’t open just by using “Alohamora”, so he tried several unlocking charms, each one stronger than the last, till he ran out of them. He was impressed. This was quite good for a student. Trouble was of course, that he now didn’t really know how to open the door. He tried to remember what Harry had written.

“The best about this room is, that it’s started to like me, so if someone wanted to come in using force, the room will only seal itself and ward more against intruders. If you’d try a friendly approach it might let you in. Or you just have to be me.”

That was what Harry had written in the diary, knowing people could only read it if he let them or was dead/gravely injured.

Snape knew what he had to do. So he put his hands against the door and asked in a quite friendly way: “Could you please grant me entrance, as I’d like to see what Harry has founded within.”

He felt some sort of power rush over him, and then he heard the click of the door opening. Letting out the breath he had held, he slowly pushed the door open and walked in.

When he was inside, the door locked itself behind him. For a moment he stood in darkness, till several torches lit themselves. Looking around, Snape’s approval grew. He was standing in a room which held quite a lot of things. On the other side of the room there was another door, one side was apparently for leisure for it contained two soft looking chairs and a table in front of a fire place. A cabinet which held some glasses stood nearby.

There was an entire lab on the other side of the room. Snape, loving Potions as much as he does, quickly walked over there. Lined on several shelves was an impressive collection of Potion books. Snape itched to look into some of them, but knew that if he did that, he would read them all, and he didn’t have time for that now.

On other shelves were jars that held potions. It was work that rivaled Snape’s own. There were potions from the 1st till the 7th year curriculum, potions for Healing and antidotes for poisons. There was still a potion brewing on a low fire. It was kept in a silver cauldron imbedded with containing and protecting runes. As far as Snape knew, there had never been such a cauldron. He wondered what the potion was for. It didn’t look like anything he knew, nor did it smell like anything he knew. He could detect traces of several ingredients, but not all. Luckily for him, there was a leather bound book lying on the table.

Opening it, he saw it was filled with the messy handwriting of Harry. Obviously this was a working journal of some sorts. It contained notes on his lessons, on observations made by Harry when trying out potions and some potions he was making himself. Snape was impressed. Apparently Harry had improved some Healing potions. If he made that common knowledge patients and hospitals would be very happy. Some of the potions could even be used for muggles.

He looked for the notes on the potion that wasn’t finished. When he found the right pages, he was shocked. This was a near miracle, it would help so many people if this potion was going to be finished and would actually work. No wonder he was so secretive about it. But Snape could see that Harry had hit a dead end and didn’t seem to be able to find the one ingredient that could probably make it all work. He copied the notes and decided to work on it as well. If Harry was found, he would offer his ideas and perhaps then they could finish this potion.

With a lot of trouble, he managed to put the book down and leave the potion alone. He then walked over to the other door. In the diary Harry had said you just had to think of what you wanted to see, and the room would appear on the other side. So Snape pictured a training room in his head, and when he opened the door it lead to a room which could definitely be titled of as a training room. There was padding on all the walls, there were several dummies that could be shot at, there were even some weapons hung up. Several swords, throwing daggers and a sable. Then there were several devices to gain better balance, strength and flexibility.

Snape would have never guessed this from just looking at Harry. Either the Hogwarts robes really did conceal a lot, or Harry had used a concealment charm, or he hadn’t been practicing this for very long. Snape walked out of the room and pictured the library.

When he opened the door again, he certainly got himself a library. It was even bigger than the normal one Hogwarts had. Walking through the shelves he could also spot several books that were written in languages he couldn’t understand and even several that seemed to be from Salazar Slytherin. Maybe some books were also in Parseltongue, since Snape had to be able to read many languages for his Potions research. But he didn’t know if you could even write Parseltongue.

Walking out of the Library he pictured several other things. He got a bedroom, a kitchen, garden filled with nearly extinct plants and a place that seemed to be nothing more than just a forest. Snape didn’t stay in that one very long. He didn’t know what else was in there. It looked safe, but he was willing to bet Harry didn’t put a room like that in, when there wasn’t a purpose for it.

Snape realized he had been spending half the day in the rooms, so he walked out of it and walked back to the Office. After knocking, he walked in.

Remus was looking teary-eyed and even the twinkling in the eyes of the Headmaster, seemed to have been dimmed.

“Have you finished reading the important parts?” Snape asked.

“Yes we have” said Dumbledore, he cast his eyes down. “It seems I made a very great mistake when I left him there. I just assumed that they wouldn’t harm their nephew like that, that they would treat him like their own son. Apparently I was wrong.” He sighed.

Remus looked at Snape. “What have you been looking for?” he asked.

Snape took a deep breath and decided not to tell too much. They had to see for themselves to believe all that. “Well, I went to look for the room Harry had made for himself. I found it and well, I spent all the hours there. It’s quite wonderful and I wouldn’t really mind having such a room myself.”

Dumbledore smiled at that. “It seems we should go there as well to have a look. It would make a lot more clear about Harry himself. He is always very closed about himself. And no wonder, it seems to me now.”

Snape and Remus nodded. Just when they rose to go to the room and have a look at it (again for Snape), there was a tapping on the window. Outside was Hedwig, with a note attached to her leg. She was quite frantic at getting inside.

“It seems, this room of Harry has to wait a while. Finally some news. Let us hope, it is good news.” Said Dumbledore. With that said, he walked over to the window and let Hedwig in. He then took the note off, and unrolled it.